Patient Quinalt [i.e. Quinault] Indians allege received bad treatment

ALLEGE

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PATIE NT

QUINAULT INDIANS

ALLEGE

RECEIVED BAD TREATMENT

From

ABERDEEN HERALD

Rep rinted Dec. 2 6, 1913
IN

Willapa Harbor Pilot

South Bend

Northwest Coast Museum

PREFACE

The material presented in this account of the Quinault was
gathered during three visits of a month each in the spring of 1925-
26 and 1926-27. The visits were made under the auspices of the
Department of Anthropology of the University of Washington.

In 1855 the Quinault ceded a part of their territory to the United
States government, retaining, however, that portion which consti-
tutes the present Quinault Indian reservation. Shortly after this a
considerable number of the surviving members of neighboring
tribes moved, or were transferred, to the reservation and were
alloted timber lands there on the same basis as those of Quinault
blood. By about 1890 all the Quinault had moved to the modern
village of Taholah ( named for Cnief Taxo'la, the grandfather of
Billy Mason), the site of the native village of Kwi'nail. This is
now the only permanent village on the reservation and counts per-
haps 400 residents, about half of whom are reckoned as Quinault.

The Quinault have been the subject of brief sketches or men-
tions by a number of authors ( see B.A.E. , Bull. 30), but except
for the brief sketches in Curtis (THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN,
vol. 9) and that by Willoughby there have been no systematic des-
criptions of the culture. I have made no attempt to give full item
references to these earlier works, since the descriptions there
are so meager or vague that I have felt it necessary to amplify in
almost every case.

The tribal culture has so completely broken down that scarcely
anything remains of it but its memory in the minds of some of the
oldest members of the tribe. Accordingly, my account can lay no
claim to completeness. But for most features I have secured
about the totality of information which can be salvaged at this late
date. Exceptions are the materials relating to music and basketry.
Much more information on these could have been acquired had time
and equipment permitted.

My chief informants were Bob Pope, Billy Mason, Johnson
Wakinas, Alice Jackson, and Sammy Hoh. All were thoroughly
reliable, reasonably intelligent, and, being above 60 years of age
(Pope was over 90) , were familiar with the old life. Pope's know-
ledge was all that could be desired but he spoke no English. He was
Farrand's main informant. Harry Shale (who was Farrand's inter-
preter) and Fred Pope acted as interpreters. Of these, Pope,
Wakinas, and Hoh have since died. Informants of less importance
included July Cole, Harry Shale, and Mrs. Otto Strom. In cer-
tain sections of my account I have referred to informants by name
or initials.

Some miscellaneous information on neighboring tribes, which
was secured from aliens resident on the reservation, will be pre-
sented in a separate paper.*

The sketches and diagrams illustrating various items of the
culture are not all based upon actual specimens. Some are from
descriptions, others from crude native representations, and others
from photographs.

The phonetic scheme employed is the simpler system of the
PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF THE INDIAN LANGUAGES
(Smithsonian Misc. Col., 66, no. 6, 1916, except that long vowels
are without diacritical marks.

*A nearly complete series of myths and legends was submitted as
a part of my original manuscript, but unfortunately it has been
found impossible to include it in the present publication. In part
the myths duplicate Farrand's TRADITIONS OF THE QUINAULT
INDIANS ( see Bibliography), but he failed to give verbatim rendi-
tions and omitted many tales, in particular the entire Xwoni
Xwoni cycle.

/

Chief Tahola II

PATIENT QUINAULT INDIANS
ALLEGE RECEIVED BAD TREATMENT

Willapa Harbor Pilot, Friday, December 26, 1913
(Reprinted from the Aberdeen Herald)

Dispatches from Washington D. C0 indicate
the removal of Superintendent H. H. Johnson, of
the Cushman Indian School, will be made perma-
nent as the result of a hearing of the House of Rep-
resentatives last week. Johnson went to the capi-
tal seeking reinstatement on the ground that his
removal was based on flimsy charges for the pur-
pose of effecting his removal to make room for a
Democrat. This was supported by Congressman
Johnson, who was inclined to take a similar view
of the case. The charges against Johnson were
not made public in detail until after he was to be
removed.

Charges are Serious

Briefly, the charges made by the Indians a-
gainst H. H. Johnson are of such nature that his
immediate removal was ordered, follow:

1. Immorality: in this charge the death of an
inmate of the Cushman school, is laid against the
door of Mr. Johnson.

2. Refusing to allow the Quinault Indians their
right to make their own land selections during the
allotment, and refusing to allot acreage with any
value to Indians, who the Indians charge, "did
not have money enough to pay Mr. Johnson for the
right. "

3. Selling the trading rights on the reserva-
tions to traders, who refuse to purchase the sal-
mon of the Indians, in this way cutting off their
only source of revenue.

4. Allowing the Indians permission to "clear"
cedar land only on condition that their timber,

7

shingle timber could be sold only to one Tacoma
firm, friendly to Mr. Johnson.

5. Forcing the Indians to keep their nets out
of the fishing grounds unless the Indians contri-
buted a certain amount of work on the roads dur-
ing fishing season.

6. Refusing to investigate charges and com-
plaints made by the Indians.

7. Leasing the oil lands of the Indians without
notifying the Indians that he was leasing their lands.

8. Charges of fraud in obtaining the signa-
tures of the Indians to oil land leases.

9. Constructing a new school house at Queets
by telling the Indians that the government would
pay them $3 a day for their work, when there was
at that time no appropriation set aside for that
purpose .

10. Making no effort to help better the condi-
tions of the tribe living on the reservation and as
a result forcing the younger men and more edu-
cated generation off the tribal grounds of their
forefathers .

11. Refusing aid or assistance to the Indians
in time of sickness and need.

12. Refusing financial accounting to those
Indians who had placed trust funds in his keeping.

INDIANS TREATED SHAMEFULLY

Captain Charles Mason, Chief Tahola II of the
Quinault Indians, made the following plea before
the congressional committee sent here a few
months ago to investigate Indian agencies, and
shows a shameful condition of affairs that permits

8

want, suffering, and hardship among the wards
of the nation, whose possessions in land and tim-
ber, if wisely administered, would make them
all independent and comfortable. Its reading is
sufficient to bring a blush of shame to the cheek
of an American citizen:

STATEMENT OF CHIEF TAHOLA II

"I am over 90 years old. My father made the
treaty with Governor Stevens about 70 years ago.
He was 'Tahola1. I was with him when he made
the treaty.

"The people of Washington have not treated my
people right. Governor Stevens told us they would
give us blankets; that we would get cared for; that
we would get roads built; that we would get a doc-
tor, yet we still have to get along the beach and
wait for the tide to go out before we can get a doc-
tor when we want one. Then the doctor is 40
miles away when we do want one, and we must pay
a lot of money when we do get one, and that is not
right. I am now in very poor health.

"I have got land, and I cannot get money. 1
have to rub my eyes all the time. They hurt me.
There is something growing over them both and I
cannot see at all pretty soon--beside they hurt me
more all the time. I have told Mr. Johnson (H.H.
Johnson--recently dismissed) lots of times about
this, but he don't do anything. He don't care.
Will you please tell these people, and get my eyes
well? I wish my eyes did not hurt me so. Tell
them to take care of us.

"I have lots of land. There is plenty there for
me. I do not drink whiskey. I have not long to
stay. Tell them to help my people. They are no
trouble to the government. They are no trouble to
anyone. All our young fellows are away to work
for the outside white people and make no trouble

9

there. That is all. "

ADMINISTRATION IS ATTROCIOUS

James DeK. Brown, who visited the reserva-
tion with government agents, tells the story of the
wrongs to those Indians, as well as a policy that
tends to retard the development of the western
part of Chehalis county, in the Tacoma Tribune,
of last Sunday, which follows in part:

"The administration of the reservation has
been atrocious. For instance, the Indians live by
their fishing. They sell their fish. It is the only
thing they can sell lawfully. But under the late
administration this fish can only be sold to a li-
censed trader.

"This licensed trader was given the store at
the village and the right to buy all of their fish. "

"The traders increased their prices 30 per
cent above those at Moclips, refused to buy the
fish at market price, the Indians declare, in fact,
giving only a few cents where the same men at
Aberdeen and on the outside were paying five and
six times as much, and in this way, by allowing
the Indians a loose rein on credit at tne store, and
failing to provide money by taking their fish, soon
had the entire village bankrupt. The same traders
are keeping it so. But after squeezing the last
pound out of the village, the credit was shut down,
so that the Indians are forced to practically give
their fish to the traders in order to live even in
poverty. This is the Indian's complaint.

Another complaint is in the land of allotments.
The Indians declare they are not allowed to make
their own selections, but were forced to take
worthless land, the valuable land being held back
for settlement by the whites when all of the land
is alloted.

10

The Quinaults have suffered from both the
state and the federal government. Improvements
have been denied. Every effort on the part of
themselves to better their condition has been
promptly squelched.

Is it then any wonder that in their tribal
councils men, who have educated themselves in
the logging camps and mills, will stand up and
say, as I heard one in a most impassioned ad-
dress:

"We are only "POOR LO, THE INDIAN". What
does the government care for us? The government
is afraid we will earn something, that we will grow
up, and our children will be educated, and we will
know as much as the white man. They are afraid
of us. We are honest, and they don't want honest
people to increase.

"The government is not our friend. It does
not want us to be like white people. We are not
children, but the government would make us like
that. They want us all to die.

"They don't want our people, to whom all the
land, timber, fish and oil here belongs. "

11

Famous Speech of Chief Seattle Paper #1

Patient Quinault Indians Allege Received

Bad Treatment (Chief Tahola II) Paper #2

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